It’s been a hectic few days but the Celtic squad is now set for the challenges ahead.
The club signed nine players over the course of the summer transfer window. Ten if you include the compulsory purchase clause for Tomoki Iwata being activated.
Some, like Odin Thiago Holm and Marco Tilio, were in early. Others, namely Nat Phillips and Paulo Bernardo, arrived with days or hours of the window to spare.
Big players also departed the scene. Jota, Carl Starfelt and Aaron Mooy were the most notable three in that regard while the likes of Conor Hazard, Ismaila Soro and Vasilis Barkas also exited permanently.
Adam Montgomery, Ben Summers and Sead Haksabanovic were among the players who went out on loan.
It all leaves the Celtic squad looking like this.
Given our current injury issues, it has been possible at times to feel like we’ll be struggling to field a team in our next match. While Cameron Carter-Vickers, Reo Hatate and Maik Nawrocki are all big misses, we do now seem to have some decent cover. When they return we will be in even better shape.
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There are still some areas of concern. If Alistair Johnston misses more time then we may have issues at right-back. Goalkeeper and left-back are two other areas we could’ve done with strengthening.
But middle to front there is now cause for optimism. Liel Abada has signed a new deal and should offer us a lot in the coming months. Marco Tilio and Hyunjun Yang could both mature to be exciting players while big things are expected of Luis Palma.
If Paulo Bernardo has half the impact of Jota, albeit in the different position, we’ll be very happy with him.
Up front Hyeongyu Oh has shown enough to say he can contribute while Rocco Vata is going to be viewed as a striker going forward.
The main issue for this writer now is the team finding a better level than they’ve shown in previous weeks. If the likes of Abada, Greg Taylor, Matt O’Riley, Callum McGregor and more can improve then we’ll be feeling pretty differently about things.
In other news, Celtic have found out their fixtures for the upcoming UEFA Champions League group stage campaign